Who can end the harbour winning streak over Tarzan?

Reporter Cheng Shan reported After beating Nantong Zhiyun 8-1 to break the Chinese Super League winning streak, who can stop Shanghai Port from winning has become one of the hottest topics in the Chinese Super League this season. This encounter with Shandong Taishan came at the right time, and it was a gimmick. In the end, the 1-0 away victory extended the winning streak to 15 games, and the "eventful summer" Taishan also saved face.

Although the opponent Shandong Taishan has a mediocre performance this season, with only 9 wins, 7 draws and 5 losses in the first 21 rounds of the league, it is temporarily fifth in the standings with 34 points, and the defensive leakage is also questioned. But the Tarzans still have a huge psychological advantage against Harbour at home. Since Shanghai SIPG played in the Chinese Super League in 2013, in the last 11 years, Shandong Taishan has won 5 wins, 5 draws and 1 loss at home against Shanghai SIPG. Prior to this round, the last time Harbour defeated Shandong Taishan away from home was in the 27th round of 2015, which was also the only time in the history of Harbour that they had beaten Taishan away from home.

Before this encounter, Harbour was invincible under Muscat and before the meeting with Taishan, Harbour won 18 wins and three draws in 21 league rounds, and topped the standings with 57 points. Of course, there is more than one reason for Harbour's consistent results this season – they are on fire in attack, scoring 78 goals in all competitions, averaging 3.7 goals per game, and the attacking power of several of the team's goalscorers is even more surprising. What's more, the defensive side of the game has also been excellent, conceding just 18 goals in the first 21 rounds, an average of less than one goal per game.

With such confidence, this seaport is naturally more confident than ever. Before the trip to Jinan, head coach Muscat led his players to prepare for the sweltering heat in Shanghai, and although the upcoming new round of the league was not easy, the Harbour players still had a lot of fun in training. The stable results have also made the current team atmosphere very harmonious, and Oscar also shared a barbecue with his teammates.

Although I hope that the players will not be too nervous, Muscat has also reminded everyone in the past few days that they should not be too relaxed, "The biggest problem against Shandong's opponent is that everyone may relax mentally. The head coach clearly wants the willpower and energy of his players to change from the outside world, and he repeatedly stressed to his players: "We only have to pay enough attention to play well and no matter what the outside world says, we have to concentrate on preparing for this game." ”

Considering the time factor, the harbor chose to take a plane in Jinan, they also met a lot of fans at the airport, in the face of the fans' autograph group photo request, the players and coach Muscat were happy to agree, Muscat also specially thanked the fans, it can be seen that the mood is good.

Due to the current high temperature in Shanghai, after coming to Jinan, although the weather is relatively hot, the harbor players generally feel that the temperature has dropped a lot. Before the game, Muscat, who has high emotional intelligence, first did not talk about his team's preparations, but first cared about the body of the opposing head coach Cui Kangxi, "In fact, many things in life are bigger than football, so I would like to wish Cui Dao a speedy recovery." This passage somewhat eased some of the tension between the two teams.

The slightly sultry weather at Taishan's home stadium was dispersed a lot by a rain before the game, and the game process was actually as expected by the outside world - compared to other opponents, Shandong Taishan's resistance in the first half was obviously more sufficient, and the control of the harbor at the back was quite effective, and under such a high-pressure defense, the harbor also made several mistakes in attack, which was rare in previous games. The VAR judgment that Wu Lei's goal was invalid in the middle of the game, and the cancellation of the penalty of the Taishan team became a big controversy in the game. Regardless, the home side's tenacity in the first half of the game did put Harbour's attacking side under the most pressure in recent times.

In the second half, Harbour struggled to find possible ways to score, and at one point they formed a series of presses, and it was clear that they wanted to extend their winning streak. In the 66th minute, Oscar used a corner kick to transmit cannonballs to Wu Lei again, this time Wu Lei finally broke through the gate of Taishan with a header in an excellent position in front of the goal, and Wu Lei has scored 24 goals in 22 league games after this game.

Interestingly, after Wu Lei's goal, he specially called Oscar to complete their designed shoe-shine celebration to thank Oscar for giving him many excellent assists this season.

In the face of a 0-1 scoreline, Taishan is still making a final effort, but Harbour has no choice but to increase their investment in defense, after all, taking three points away from home is their biggest goal in this game, even if only one goal is scored. Seeing that the general trend has gone, before the end of the game, some fans have already left the venue in advance.

After the game, head coach Muscat admitted that today's game was very difficult, which the team had expected before the game. He also praised the players first, saying that there were a lot of difficulties in the away game, but the players kept a positive attitude in the game, "It's fair to say that we created a lot of chances today and in the end we took the three points back to Shanghai. ”

"In the first half of today, the opponent's resistance was very strong, and in the second half I also felt that the players were very comfortable, when we had the ball, we kept creating chances in the attacking process, and when the ball was not cleared, we wanted to continue to press to form a continuous attack. He also admits that this requires players to have a strong trust in the team's style of play, and to have a strong mentality, but also to be able to achieve it physically.

What's more worth mentioning is that Harbour's set-piece tactical drills this season have also been quite successful, and when the fast attack cannot open the situation, the method of relying on set-pieces as a breakthrough has been tried and tested repeatedly. "We also scored from set-pieces in the first leg against Taishan, which is what my assistant Aloisi has been trying to do, and when you have players like Oscar and Vargas with good footwork, and Wu Lei can take chances very smartly, the threat is greater." Muscat said.

Over Tarzan, who will be the terminator of the harbor winning streak, this topic will continue. And the Shencheng derby on August 17 has become even more worth looking forward to.